the moonlight atelier

The following is a book review I started writing for my bookstagram that no longer ended up becoming much of a book review and more of scattered thoughts on what makes someone Asian enough to write Asian stories. Enjoy? Yellowface by RF Kuang is a book that poses one big (unanswered) question: Where is the Line?  What is the limit to what a writer can or cannot write about? Is it cultural appropriation for a white person to write a book taking place in a country they’ve never stepped foot in and whose heritage does not originate from? Is it outside of the scope for an Asian-American person to write a fictionalized account of atrocities their family experienced in Asia but they themselves never have?  This seems to be a question posed to the audience and posed to author RF Kuang. And I still find myself to not be very sure.  Yellowface by RF Kuang follows 100% white woman June Hayward as she rises to stardom as a young author in the literary world. Well, that is, by publi...

The following was submitted for the fan-meeting special, "It's 5PM, and this is Kim Namjoon." I feel like I always have the hardest time writing what BTS means to me in a proper little piece, but I liked what I wrote for the special. Even if it didn't get aired, it was a nice opportunity for a little bit of reflection.  Happy 10 years to BTS.  Hi Bangtan!  So I've been reading a lot more lately (something that I've been doing out of inspiration from the well-read Kim Namjoon). And I find that the stories that are the best for me are those that end, short and sweet. Not the ongoing series that, over time, lose their unique flavor that made them so meaningful and good. Not Hollywood-adapted franchises whose themes get severely watered down to be palatable for the consumption of the general public.  But I find that there is one longtime ongoing series that I do enjoy - it's the one about you and me.  I don't mean for it to sound so romantic, but it does! ...

Genres: YA Fiction, Magical Realism  Yeah, I love this book.  If You Could See the Sun follows a girl that suddenly develops the ability to turn invisible.  So naturally, she capitalizes on it. At her elite private international boarding school, this girl, Alice Sun, decides to create an app with her mortal enemy Henry that allows her to anonymously take on requests for deeds to fulfill for her wealthy peers by utilizing her newfound ability. I read this book as the Book of the Month for a Discord server that I joined recently, right on time for AAPI Heritage Month in May. And it's definitely inspired a lot of thought, discussion and reflection on my own Asian heritage and generally children of families societally at a disadvantage.  Throughout, Alice is a girl acting in desperation.  Her main motivation is to be able to ease the hardships of her family as they suffer financially, to fund her own tuition for school when her parents struggle to keep up. She reco...

Was that the right thing to do?   I definitely felt a little embarrassed after doing so.   But I’m glad I did so.   No, not everyone needs to know that I’m struggling with a debilitating personality disorder.   But this particular personality disorder -  actually all personality disorders - receives a lot of flack and stereotyping. I don’t think I should hide because of this. I shouldn’t be embarrassed because of this. After all, I’m sick.   And I’m working on healing.   When I was first diagnosed, the psychologist told me not to look up Borderline Personality Disorder online.   Of course I would.   In my Google findings, I found r/bpdlovedones and the horror stories from friends and family of those with BPD. I saw myself in those stories, saw the way I’ve scared others with my behavior, saw my attachment and how dangerous it was.   And I closed myself out from the world, like I was voluntarily caging myself in the abyss. Because I was ...

That is actually exactly how it went. I felt chatty. Very chatty. It's a Friday though, so not many people are available to chat extensively. So I will chat with myself and perhaps a nameless reader stumbling upon my first blogpost on the moonlight atelier .  I always wanted ( needed ) to start a blog of some sort and share the many little complicated thoughts I have in my head about my life and the life around me, but I tend to use my friends' text messages or the captions under my Instagram posts as my main outlet for that. Their replies and interactions with my thoughts were often enough to satisfy that want ( need ).  Enter, the moonlight atelier . Isn't the name pretty? As much as friends say they love my rambles, I get way too self-involved. It would be great to take some more time to listen to their stories than recount every single one of mine every single day. It would be even better if I refrained from subjecting them to my bouts of epiphanies and re-traumatizat...